(Photo: H&M)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Eco-fashion is available now for big and small spenders
Apparel that doesn 't hurt the environment has a romantic appeal but just don 't call it pleather
When top designers go green, products are more alluring 154CONNECT 155TWEET 12LINKEDIN 7COMMENTEMAILMORE
America 's closets are turning green.
The same environmental sensibilities that have swept the foodie world (farm-to-table, organic produce) are making inroads in the fashion universe as the environmental movement continues its rise and new technology produces refined synthetic and recycled materials.
For example:
• Last month, Saks and Neiman Marcus settled a lawsuit charging they labeled real fur as faux fur to escape disclosing its source (raccoon dogs, in this case) — a ploy that turns marketing on its head: Fake sells better than real?
• At a Last Call by Neiman Marcus in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, stylish faux-leather vegan motorcycle jackets with faux crocodile trim (prominently labeled as such) fill up a rack in the high-end discount store.
• High-heeled vegan pumps by OlsenHaus ($225 retail), made of all-synthetic materials, recently showed up on the online shopping site MyHabit.com next to leather platforms by more traditional high-end shoe purveyors such as Calvin Klein and Cole Haan.
Red-carpet endorsements by celebrities don 't hurt: Actress Natalie Portman regularly wears vegan shoes, and designer Stella McCartney has become synonymous with ethical fashion, rejecting fur and leather in her high-priced couture.
"Initially, when green fashion started to make any kind of inroads into the apparel industry, it was headed by activists," says Sass Brown, acting assistant dean of the Fashion Institute of Technology 's School of Art and Design and an eco-fashion blogger and author (www.ecofashiontalk.com). "Now it 's headed by designers
Citations: Bertrand, Marianne, and Sendhil Mullainathan. 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination." The American Economic Review 94(4): 991-1013. JUNE 21, 2014 PATRICK KELLEN The United States federal government has accumulated debt of more than $17 trillion, and that debt is expected to grow significantly in coming years Sabir Shah Thursday, September 19, 2013